Solitary Sword Sovereign 84 Good Old Duke

"Long-range DPS classes aim for the weak spot under its neck."

"For fuck sakes, tanks you need to hold that aggro!"

This was Magma Canyon. A three-star dungeon which consisted entirely of volcanic regions. It was a relatively easy dungeon, yielding little rewards upon completion, so the powerful lords had left it to the middle ranked guilds to take care of.

On the field was a large party consisting of over 300 people. Each person possessing a somewhat unique class and possessing powerful items. This was a raid party created by the Sin Row Guild, who were attempting to completely raid this dungeon. No mid-ranked guild had succeeded in this venture, and they intended to be the first. Unfortunately, things were not going so well for them.

They were fighting at the foot of an active volcano that was bubbling with magma. The final boss of the dungeon was before them. They had lost dozens of members in their attempt to kill this boss, and it didn't seem like it was about to go down any time soon.

"Bunch of retards."

Behind a large rock a hundred meters behind the group, was the ever-reliable vulture, Duke. He had taken a job to investigate the dungeon. It was a common thing for people to hire others to scope out dungeons for them, but it was a risky venture, only for those strong enough and desperate enough. Duke was definitely both.

He had followed Sin Row into the dungeon, hiding behind them, letting them do all the work while he recorded the whole thing. This was a common sight and Sin Row didn't care. It a common occurrence and the guild didn't want to waste their energy on removing the prying eyes. During this trip, Sin Row was confident in dispatching the boss and clearing the dungeon. Once the boss was cleared and they took the loot, the dungeon would naturally disappear, so they couldn't care less about the rats on their tail.

Despite having Sin Row clearing the way, following them was not easy. The monsters killed would respawn after a few hours, so one couldn't linger at the same spot unless they were farming experience or loot. By the time the raiding party had reached the final boss, Duke was the only tail left, the others having either died or escaped the dungeon.

Duke was currently haggard, with a lot of his gear ruined. Soot and ash covered his face, but his eyes were alive, constantly surveying the surroundings. No one had ever gotten this far before, so his information would sell for quite a bit if the boss was not killed. So it came as no surprise that Duke was hoping for Sin Row to fail.

After an hour of constant battle, things took another turn for the worse. The boss unleashed an Area of Effect skill that wiped out half the party. Everyone caught in the skill was burned into ash, with nothing remaining to show that they had even existed. The system was game like, but deaths were real. The survivors turned tail and ran the moment they gathered their wits about them.

Duke gulped at what had happened. He put away his camera into his bag and intended to leave with an escape scroll. Before he left, he took one last look at the survivors, burning the whole scene into his memory.

"These guys are in trouble."

"That's an understatement."

"Do they have a shot at surviving?"

"Nope," Duke replied as he shook his head, he was about to tear the scroll to activate it when a sudden realization came upon him.

'Eh?'

Duke looked to his side, only to see an unfamiliar face. A young black man with short white hair. He wore a simple combination of shorts and a t-shirt. He had sandals on and had a sword strapped to his waist, encased in an ice-blue sheath.

"How the hell?"

"Oh, I'm Will by the way." Said the young man, forcibly shaking Duke's hand. Duke was still in a daze, so he replied by reflex, "I'm Duke."

"Dope, dope. Nice to meet you, bro. So what do we have here?"

Ignoring the stupified Duke, Will looked at the boss ahead. A large bear the size of a five-story building was running toward him and Duke, or rather specifically, after the party that had aggravated it.

[Helios Wear Bear: A powerful and destructive magma type bear. It can grow to incredibly large sizes and is highly territorial. It has powerful long-range capabilities and its hide is very strong, capable of blocking most attacks. It is most wary of water or ice-based abilities

Rating: C+

Class: Dungeon Boss]

The bear seemed to be made out of scorched earth, with veins maid out of lava coursing all over its body. It was more like a statue come to life than an actual creature. Will marveled at the beast for a moment, but Duke was having none of it. The party was already passing by them, meaning that the bear was close. Hence Duke ignored the freakiness of Will's sudden arrival and attempted to tear the scroll in his hands, except…there was nothing to tear.

"What's this?"

Will had somehow grabbed the scroll and started observing it. A system prompt appeared in front of him explaining what the scroll did.

"Wow, a scroll that can teleport you out of the dungeon, so long as you are not in a combat state, pretty neat."

"Roar!"

Will's words were accompanied by the bear's mad roars.

"What the! Give that back, are you trying to get us killed?" Duke screamed. He grabbed the scroll from a disgruntled Will and tore it immediately, only to receive a system prompt indicating that a hostile creature was too close, so he was now in a battle state.

Duke lost the strength in his knees and collapsed, facing the oncoming behemoth. The earth beneath the duo trembled as the bear got closer. Duke's mind stopped as the fear of death overtook any cognitive reasoning he had. But before he could say or do anything, the bear came to a screeching halt and made an odd gesture.

Chapter end